Ooh! Is there going to be another one?

[Warning the Third: Contains Ickle-Diddy-Widdle-Tibble-Kins]

Okay, you've got my attention.

PLEASE TELL ME THAT THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL!!!! THIS IS JUST SCREAMING TO BE CONTINUED!!!!

*sigh*

Well, fuck.

On tonight's episode of: THE JERRYRIG SHOW!

In retrospect, really should have guided Equestria to be more open-minded, Old Sol.

Would have made what's coming realms easier to deal with. Granted, the populace's anger and disgust and cries for removing them from the throne wil; all based on their own falsified perceptions, illusions crafted by themselves to fit the society born from those selfsame illusions of generations past. So really they should be angry at themselves... but they won't be. It'll hardly matter all the good that's been done by the Crown, that none of them would have been born if it'd not been for the Sisters, that their families wouldn't exist, that they've soaked in the warmth of Celestia's love and care all their lives.

Soon as they have something they feel outraged over even though it's none of their business and isn't hurting them, the alicorns will be demonized. Even public image can't harm the public if the public doesn't harm themselves over it.

Is it a good idea for Twilight to still leave after it was revealed that she knows? It seems they should have discussed how this will effect their relationships more before Twilight is sent out. Now her uncertainties and negative emotions will fester and could cripple her relationship with the princesses. A small part of me is still hoping that Celestia and Luna would have Twilight join them and all three can be happy together.
And that ending has me anticipating the continuation as it seems there will be more drama.

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As a matter of clarity: Twilight left, she was not sent. Hence the lack of a destination.

Oh my. Ha ha ha ha ha. Little highborn baby bastard alicorns. Better put a ring on it celly.

*Five minute long spit-take*

Not suprised about the pregnancy bit, but still... That cliffhanger ending.

Loved the story thou.

THE ULTIMATE CLIFFHANGER!!!

Well that was a complete downer. Basically, everything that I hoped wouldn't happen, happened. =(

...I have mixed feelings about this whole pregnancy thing.

Well at least the epilogue wrapped up the issue of incompleteness I felt from the last chapter. And then the vomiting from last chapter decided to say,"Yes that wasn't nerves, it WAS exactly what you first thought." and I sit here thinking "This can't even be fixed with a shotgun wedding because... fuck."
I guess we'll just have to sit on this until next season.
Side note: Empire Strikes Back had a happier ending than this!

So... was the maid that Luna left in her bathroom still there and privy to the whole conversation? Or did I miss that part?

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This passage from the previous chapter makes it sound like she was being sent:

“As a Princess of Equestria, it is well past time that you visit our neighbors and allies, and begin developing relationships with their leaders and dignitaries. Though I will miss you greatly, I believe that, with the upcoming Summit, putting it off any longer would be missing a peerless opportunity."

Celestia using phrases like "well past time" and "missing a peerless opportunity" would trigger Twilight's innate 'tardy!' response, and she knows it. It may not have been a command, but it might as well have been.

Though perhaps Twilight set sail intending to do diplomacy duty, but without waiting for Celestia to give her a specific destination. Using Celestia's directive as a convenient excuse to flee, which is what I think you intended.

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In retrospect, really should have guided Equestria to be more open-minded, Old Sol.

Should the Sisters have spent the last several millennia gradually reversing the incest taboo? There's some argument whether the Westermarck Effect is real, but is their type of relationship really something the Princesses want to encourage their ponies to copy?

Luna and Celestia have been so selfish in dealing with Twilight. Nothing about it has been listening to or helping her, it's always about them and what they want, even when they know she's having a breakdown. I hope she takes as much time as she needs with her friends to sort though her feelings.

Oh shi-

I have to admit, I in no way feel sorry for Celestia and Luna. They dug their own grave with their decisions. Their relations with Cadance and Shining will be strained at best for a while and they completely alienated Twilight. Could Twilight have done something different, maybe? I do not fault her for running away. Luna broke her heart and Celestia completely shattered Twilight's idea she had of her. Hopefully, Twilight's friends will be able to help her, but I do not see Twilight's relationship with either princess ever really mending. However, that is left to the author to decide, so I hope a third installment will eventually come.

I… I think I am pregnant.

Oh, come now. Twilight going off on the two of them was all but expected, being the only plausible way that whole mess could have ended, but don't drop a drama bomb like this on us without planning some closure. That's just mean.

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Now, just out of curiosity,and maybe I'm missing something, but what exactly where Celestia and Luna supposed to do?

Bravo.

Dat cliffhanger. Much love. Hurry up and sequel before I die of cliffhangover.

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How you think that two ponies who love each other have any responsibility for how the or peers react to that fact baffles me. They didn't alienate Twilight. Twilight had a vision of what they were, and was wrong. That is all on her, not them.

6449533

At this point I'm tempted to say that if they did nothing it would have been better. Celestia pretty much noted that she couldn't give Twilight what she needed the first time she "consoled" her. I viewed it as damage control for her own sake. Then when she finds out Twilight is still a wreck she calls her up and say it's better for her to leave, phrased diplomatically of course, pretending things are a-ok? That's got to sting. Twilight needs real help, it's no one's fault she's a mess (she's not emotionally stable) but it seems like an unfair burden to place on Twilight at the time.

As far a Luna goes, she's in a similar boat, but brute forces Twilight into a conversation despite her clearly saying no and trying to leave. That's a pretty big warning sign in normal relationship and wasn't done for her benefit. It was all about what Luna wanted; Twilight's wants or needs were not considered. In fact, didn't that happen right after Luna was power tripping in her head? I'm on mobile so it's tricky to check atm. If so, I consider it some foreshadowing on this being an issue in the next act of the story.

The real problem comes from how this started, and honestly I can understand why all parties acted the way they did, it really damaged Twilight's trust in the sisters. Does she have the 'right' to know the truth? No, but they also don't have a right to her good-will either. She needs therapy or something to work through her issues and the sisters are too close to help.

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To be fair, I don't think Celestia realized how far off the deep end Twilight had gone. But I do agree she could have tried harder to make sure Twilight was alright. Now with Luna, she saw Twilight was upset, and she wanted to make sure she was alright. If you saw a friend who you knew was upset, and they refused to admit it, wouldn't you push to try and figure out what was wrong? In Luna's case, she knew that she had hurt her, and I think she wanted to try and mend what she could. Which is more than I can say for Twilight, who lost all pity I could have for her with her reactions upon her suspicions being confirmed.

Jeez.. so the super powerful princesses cant even do magic properly huh?

I mean, on one hand it makes things about Luna's sickness and inability to rest make sense. On the other it just seems so typical that Luna got pregnant.

Why do the princesses suck at so much, Luna not getting social basics I can see, Celestia forgetting how to talk to twilight and going all angry mode is bizarre. I don't care what happens to these people except twilight because everyone else seems to forget basic politeness/social skills when they most need them.

It's all well written but jeez its hard to understand where the characters are coming from with how they act.

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I think there's a case for Luna doing it out of concern, but her actions and thoughts make her come off as her thinking that she can do whatever she wants. That's the context of me thinking it was about her, along with her asking Twilight to keep the relationship secret. It comes off as damage control for a guilty concience. *Twilight was trying to flee and Luna magically manhandled her. I don't know if you've ever been in a relationship with someone who did that to you, but it completely undermines your agency as a person. You can argue that Luna thought it was justified, but I don't think it was.

Edit: with regard to Twilight, she's hurt and lashing out. I'd hardly expect someone after being forced to talk to someone they're upset with to be calm and understanding. Especially when we know she's close to a meltdown. Like I said before, the sisters are too close to really help.

Edit 2*

6449533 Honestly, by the that point I am not sure what they could have done. It was their mishandling of the situation up until that time is where I fault them.

6449808 You are right, alienate may have been the wrong word. It was all on Twilight, but their handling of the situation was poor; but how one could have handled the situation without hurting feelings may have been impossible.

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Yes they certainly made mistakes in how they handled the situation, but there was no malice in it as far as Twilight was concerned. Why they made those mistakes can be construed as surprising, but that is how they are portrayed in the story.

At the same time, Twilight's reaction can be seen as unsurprising, considering the context of her upbringing. How she handled the situation after an initial reaction though leaves nothing but contempt for her in my view and is not excusable. In this, I seem to disagree with the author.

6450385 I will agree with you about Celestia and Luna. I know their decisions were not made out malice and at least at the time they might have thought they were making the right choice.

However, I still stand behind Twilight. Of all the characters involved, I feel see had earned the right to at least hear the truth from Celestia herself instead finding out by herself. Since I did not see a alt. universe tag, I am assuming the story follows the show timeline, so she has saved the world numerous times. Celestia and Luna's relationship would never have come about if not for Twilight. If Twilight had acted the way she did after that, then I could agree you with on her behavior.

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I never said anything about Twilight giving it up. It's not even intoned in my post anywhere. My problem with it is that she didn't even TRY to understand, regardless of her personal feelings and her ingrained social phobias. She loved them both greatly, perhaps in different ways, and not even that was enough to grant them the attempt to understand. There's nothing that can be said that doesn't make that petty, and is a poor excuse either way. She moves straight to backbiting insults and sneering. Celestia basically raised her, and when she needs Twilight to be her most understanding and logical, she instead attacks.

If a reveal of this lesser nature, and her own unrequited emotions causes a rift this massive with the people who were closest to her, I doubt she's ready to lead a country.

6449050

I said nothing about copying their relationship, nor insinuated it. However, guiding a populace to be more understanding of those who are different? To be more tolerant of their own people, so long as no one is being hurt? Yes. That would have been best. These uptight hard-line phobias should have been phased out long ago.

Twilight's a perfect example of this problem. It was not the Sisters' responsibility to look after how Twilight felt in this situation because NOTHING in this situation was Twilight's business, yet here's Twilight, selfish and acting like she should have known and they should have done more for her and one of them should have been available to be her romantic interest or whatnot? That's literally all in her head and not their fault in the slightest. Twilight created her own mental issues surrounding the two of them and then fell victim to those selfsame issues. But we've got a gaggle of sheer geniuses here in the comments condemning the Sisters for not holding Twilight's metaphorical hand in a situation she should never have been involved in. If society had been more tolerant, she could have had the idea to fall back on that while she doesn't agree and isn't going to replicate such a relationship, that it's between the two of them and is their relationship to do with as they please without her input.

What people don't seem to understand is that Luna and Celestia are immortals. They have been together so long that petty matters like blood aren't even an issue (this is a concept apparently few people try to understand, even though being mortal pretty much prevents us from ever truly comprehending it). For that matter, their bond has been around since LONG before many of the ancestors of the ponies who would judge them or feel it was their business, like Twilight. What do Twilight's feelings matter in the face of a relationship thousands of years old? Should Luna have left the mare she's been at the side of for millennia to be with Twilight because poor ickle 20-something Twilight would feel bad for a few months?

Does no one remember that Twi went psychotic stalker mode over this, basically invalidating any legitimate care towards her with all this invasion of privacy and creepy nonsense? Why are we worrying about Twilight? The Sisters are far more impacted by this than Twilight was, and it was never her place to be involved to begin with. Same with Cadence. She involved herself, and it was never her business or place. Both of them were extremely nosy and then extremely hostile, throwing out all those years of love and care Celestia had for them so they could feel comforted by the normalcy of their own ingrained disgust over a situation they should have kept their noses out of.

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'Pain blinds, hurt deafens, and misery breeds misery.'

She was just dropped into her own personal hell, and it was all too much brought on too quickly for her to do anything but flail and buck. Or at least that is what I intended and attempted to show. I know I have been in similar (if vastly different) situations where, in retrospect, I could have acted with far more maturity, but, in the moment it happened, I had no empathy whatsoever. Then again, maybe I am a terrible friend, that's always a possibility.

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I think Cadance is in a whole separate boat. She was just trying to help Twilight (and to find out why she'd been seemingly cut out of the family) and stumbled onto something she was not prepared for in the slightest. That her initial reaction was negative is not surprising, and then add in Luna's behavior? While it's not relevant to the story, it is heavily implied that she stayed and is still in the castle, at least willing to give them a chance (but all of that is outside the scope of this story).

As to the Sisters. Most of what you said is right, but can you really expect mortals to think of that? Sure, they know a lot of it instinctually, but, since it is instinctual, they never really think about it, so the repercussions and logical ends are never considered until such time that they are forced to be, and Twilight was in no state to ponder those things. So, yes, you are right, but not in a way that makes Twilight's reactions unreasonable.

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I expect that sort of thing from us, where our very base natures are all about violence and dominance and greed, raised in a society that covers all of that with a pretty rug while exacerbating it. I do not expect that sort of thing from someone who's spent their life training their mind, and for years recently growing more in control of their emotions through experience with others. Someone who has been absolutely selfless with their own life, throwing themselves into danger to protect those they love without a second thought. If that love is so strong Twilight would give her life, I would thus continue to expect that the love is strong enough to warrant an attempt to understand.

It wasn't. In essence, I came into this expecting more from someone who has shown themselves to be better than most real people, and yet when the chips are down she ends up performing less than I myself have done. Surely you understand the sudden disconnect and juxtaposition there.

And as for Cadence, her reasons for concern were understandable. But this snooping thing? Then all the hostility just because she didn't like what she, uniquely perhaps, understood was between them better than anyone else? Where was the love she and Celestia had shared for potentially decades? The emotional bond? She also did not try to come to grips with what was in front of her. She willfully rejected what she knew to be true because it was distasteful to her.

You wrote Twilight and Cadence to be wrong, and you accomplished that wonderfully. But I cannot agree that they were written in a manner that I should feel for them as if they've somehow suffered more than the Sisters from their actions. Thus I cannot agree with the people who are outraged that Twilight wasn't babied over her apparently first unrequited interest. Happens to almost everyone, it shouldn't come with people condemning the Sisters for Twilight's personal faults.

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However, guiding a populace to be more understanding of those who are different? To be more tolerant of their own people, so long as no one is being hurt? Yes. That would have been best. These uptight hard-line phobias should have been phased out long ago.

I wouldn't exactly call it just a "phobia". I have no idea how genetics works in the land of magical pastel ponies, but if it's anything like ours, then their society has a vested interest in enforcing a strict incest taboo. I'd say it's less of a problem between two mares, given that they can't reproduce, except...

“‘Tia… I… I think I am pregnant.”

Whoops.

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Yes. That is the qualifier, which I agree with! But one which they did not believe could happen. For all we, the readers, and potentially the ponies and Sisters themselves knew, alicorns can't even get pregnant to begin with, even if we assume incest-based mutation works the same way in their world as ours. Which is thus surprising as we were all proven wrong.

Tolerance did not have to mean the desire to start creating incestuous breeding relationships, however. Simply not ostracizing and demonizing those who don't fit societal norms. Hell, if we wanted to get technical they could have had an institution to handle this. Magically sterilizing either or both partners in a relationship where incestuous breeding could occur. No muss, no fuss.

Hindsight, 20/20, etc. You get what I mean though.

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I can agree this situation got out of hoof, and could have been handled better.Of course, with the revelation of Luna's "status", it's kinda understandable in her case, though Celestia dropped the ball. However, this doesn't excuse Twilight's utter disgust at a pony she claimed to love with all her heart, and somepony she has known, trusted, and relied on since she was a child. It's just...too much of a change. And it's not like her opinion changes once she's more level-headed. But really, Aurora Dimmet has explained my thoughts already.

Ok, none of them handled that well at all, not even Celestia, and especially not Twilight. Hope this gets a sequel.

I suppose expecting this story to end well was wishful thinking. Though truthfully I didn't expect an ending yet anyway. Even without the epilogue, this feels quite incomplete and then you drop an enormous bomb at the very end.

I admit to being very curious where this saga will go next. That is, what's your angle? This isn't a simple love story, after all. Redemption? Acceptance? Forgiveness? Wrath? Revenge? Something more uplifting still? I simply don't know what to make of it.

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Oh of course she should have to be told instead of finding out like that, and despite Celestia and Luna's blundering I have no doubt that would have eventually happened. It was just bad luck, and perhaps poor judgement, that made it play out the way it did.

That said, twilight doesn't automatically deserve to be told just because of her earlier involvement in their lives and her hero status. A personal relationship is, in the end, personal, and it is up to the people, or ponies in this case, involved to decide when such a time is ripe, if ever.

Here's something I realized. Where did Cadence go after delivering that letter? By all means if she thought there was an emergency shouldn't her next stop be Twilight's? If Celestia sent for her right after receiving news, wouldn't she still need to go to Ponyville since there's no set time?

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Twilight's reply would have been immediate and it is stated that 13 and 14 happen on the same day. That said, it is also implied that Cadance is still in the castle.

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Very curious. I wonder where she's going to fit in all this.

6450690 It's because she loved and trusted Celestia so much that she felt so hurt. For her, Celestia was supposed to be perfect, so the fact that she wasn't at all would have felt like a personal betrayal.

It's funny, I can't help but compare this story to Princess Celestia Hates Tea. The themes are quite similar, though Princess Celestia Hates Tea is much sillier. It really isn't any less dark, though.